Tagged With harassment

Harassment and abuse on social media freaking suck. What also sometimes sucks: various platforms' inability or reluctance to effectively deal with it. But sometimes you've got to focus on what you can control and let go of the rest, which in this case means reporting harassment.

Everyone knows that Twitter is horrible at fighting harassment, but The Daily Beast recently explained why, quoting anonymous former employees who blame understaffed support teams, inadequate training, and a catch-all response flowchart that doesn't allow for common sense or individual judgement. They also revealed that reports from verified users get moved to a second, shorter work queue.

Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

Every organisation has their sexual harassers, and their identities rarely stay truly secret. Somebody knows, somebody talks, but the people in a position to do something about it -- bystanders, higher-ups -- often figure it isn't their problem. This has to stop.

If you have a public Instagram account, then anyone else with an Instagram account can currently comment on your photos. That's great sometimes, but as we all know, the internet is can be a pretty dismal place, and letting anyone comment on your pics can occasionally (or not so occasionally) mean that you get a bunch of abusive or offensive comments on your pictures from a bunch of strangers.

It's not a secret that people are mean on the internet and, if you live your life online in any appreciable way, you are most likely going to experience some sort of online harassment, and it will most likely suck. There are, however, some steps you can take to bounce back.

The internet is one of the world's greatest inventions. It's also sometimes used by some real jerks to do some pretty crappy stuff. If you've ever had to deal with online harassment, or are just worried you might, Speak Up & Stay Safe(r) teaches the basics of dealing with jerks online.